A Photo Run By

Erie Lackawanna ACX-99 has departed Croxton at 5:30am bound for Chicago,
seen here passing through Cheshire Jct. in July 1975.

Robert Gould

The Morning Milk!

The SVRR's morning milk was pretty light today and ten wheeler Rutland 53, inspite of her age, didn't need any help getting up the grade to Hooper's Curve.

Today the crew is enjoying the comforts of Rutland combine #123 recently acquired from the LP&O RR.

In this photo (above) Extra 53 south has just crested the grade at Hooper's and is coasting over Grant's Crossing and on into Twin Junction Station. In the photo below you can see rear end trainman, Dan Duffy, enjoying the view as he waits to off load a few cans of Hollister milk for the creamery at Twin Junction.

 

You have to have lots of whiskers to hold the Morning Milk. The crew will spend a good part of their day personalizing their new (to them) combine. Because of the fact that they do, on occasion, get a passenger or two, they can't personalize it too much. Passenger business, on this run, is pretty much limited a few train buffs but every once in awhile a real passenger gets on.

 

Have a great day and thanks Rick!!!!

Jim LaFayette

My Layout Update

 

Just a few pics...above is a shot looking towards Newport....backdrops are painted. off to the left will be the paper mill.

Orleans area of the layout, this maybe Ethan Allen furniture...buildings are just stand ins for now....

Staging yard is getting close to getting "covered up"....this will be a hidden yard...

 

The dry fit for the bridge in Newport....no it's not prototype, but I like this one better...it'll look great weathered up!

Rob D

HUTTON BRICK CO. Kingston, NY

 

HUTTON BRICK CO. Kingston, NY circa 1969

What do you do when there's a freakish amount of snow accumulated outside?

Get into a freakishly challenging modeling project of course.
I've thought about modeling this operation ever since I first encountered it over 40 years ago. Hutton Brick was located on the Hudson River in Kingston, NY. In addition to the forming buildings and kilns there was an open clay bank (think strip mine) that was accessed by a narrow gauge railway. Two gas mechanicals, a Plymouth and a Vulcan, were used. The finished brick was shipped out by barge but, there was a branch of the NYC (PC) that crossed the property on it's way to serve the Independent Cement Plant. I used to pass both these operations every Friday while going to a work assignment in East Kingston. Thankfully I managed to take some pictures over a period of a few years. Ultimately I'll build an operating diorama in HOn30. Here are the first steps to that end:

The Plymouth is a moderately enhanced MinitrainS (BCH International - Johnstown, PA) R-T-R model, while the 4 side dump cars were finally made available in a matched set. The loader is totally scratch built from Evergreen styrene I had on hand. (reminds me of a #97 Lional loader) It may not look it but, for it's size, it was quite a challenging project. Getting the geometry right took some effort. With Floquil unavailable, I have to find a new paint supplier I'm comfortable with in order to finish it.

Onward,

Wayne Sittner

Brad Peterson Update

Last month I ballasted the D&H yard tracks, replaced a couple switches on the SAR and also ballasted the southern end of the SAR main line from LM to just north of Mechanicville station.

Brad

BNSF at Plattsburgh!

Tonight marked the return of the BNSF pair on train 930 and I knew of course, where I wanted to shoot them.............passing the photogenic ex-D&H station in Plattsburgh, NY! Tonight I arrive on location with lots of time to spare, and end up waiting within the warm car, confident I will hear CN 528 calling for permission on the Rouses Point delivery track. This will allow me plenty of time to set-up the lighting as running time down to Plattsburgh is forty five min. after U.S. Customs scans the train. Amid much anticipation, 528s conductor calls for permission finally around 02:30 and I happily get to work setting up the lighting. The slip-on “ice grabbers” I mentioned previously which fit like “galoshes” over my winter boots are the only reason I can move around in here, as the snow is actually a hardened sheet of thick ice with powder underneath! Nothing I want to stroll around on without the help of “ice grabbers”. Once the lights are working, it’s back into the warm car for me as I listen for the departing 930 passing one of two detectors north of my location here. Around 03:45 930 is heard passing the first detector, then the second one north of Plattsburgh signals me I have seven minutes before I can expect them to be in front of the camera! With the stepladder all positioned this is plenty of time to get set, the opposite of the previous night where I had seconds of time to get the image before me! The detector reports a temp of ten above, kinda warm! lol! Silently, magically, it starts snowing! Even better, large flakes that will show up in the photo! Catching snow against the black sky adds a lot of my winter photos! Regardless of conditions, I’m a happy night train photographer listening to 930 whistling over grade crossings coming toward me through the city! Finally headlights are in sight, and engineer Robert Dennis with conductor Chris Walsh come around the curve and past the station! BNSF power at Plattsburgh! What a combination! The flash units light the pair of colorful visitors up for a moment, then they are advancing towards me to pass on my left as I give the cab a wave. Nice run-by guys! Thanks for being here with 930! Only 92 axles at the scanner! So I was grateful CN found some cars to operate the train with! lol! Minutes after the passing of 930, I'm standing around admiring the location when I realize.........the large flakes of snow......they've stopped. I don’t know, someone was looking out for me tonight providing this snow! Shot on February 4, 2014 at 04:27! Please enjoy! Comments are welcomed.

 

All The Best in 2014;

Gary Knapp

 

 

 

David Todd Magill's Maybrook Line

My layout is loosely based on the New Haven's Maybrook Line. I model from the 60's to the early 70's from Maybrook yard to roughly the NY/CT state line. The towns emphasized are Clintondale, Highland and Poughkeepsie. Including all the industries served including, Smith Street yard, LaGrange, Hopewell Jct with a small connection to a interchange yard at Beacon. There's about 20 online industries and I have a few local passenger trains too. The layout is about 85 percent done.i modeled this line as I grew up in Poughkeepsie and was always fascinated with this line even though I was. A bit young to see it!

Paul Hoffman's ATSF’s Albuquerque Division

 

The CCARM layout is a triple level design that approximates the ATSF’s Albuquerque Division running from Gallup, New Mexico to Ash Fork, Arizona sometime in the late 1960s. As one might imagine (especially if onechecks via Google Earth) this is an arid southwest landscape covering about 240 miles. Paul chose this area because he likes it and it readily coveys the image of a long train running through the countryside. The overallconcept is to have a layout that runs well and is pleasing to look at while including several scenes of high detailand having some operational variety to keep up interest. Gallup, NM has a large natural gas refinery and Ash Fork has a branch line from a mining operation; this layout is not point-to-point, however, but designed for continuous operation.

 

 Bert inside the "water tank" helix

The main line is approximately 60% complete, including a unique 9 turn double tracked helix that travels from the lower of the 3 decks to the upper staging yards. From the Form 19 The Official Newsletter of the Hudson-Berkshire Division of the NER-NMRA. Pics by Rob Dennis

50th For The Vermont Railway

If you had wandered down the m.o.w. access road into Whitehall Yard early in the morning of January 15th, you would have first spotted D&H 7303, still wearing her lightning stripe paint, directly in your line of sight coming down the road, then following the slight curve you would have spotted me, sitting in the parked Civic. D&H 7303 is a regular visitor to the yard, powering a local operating out of Whitehall during daytime into the night. Me on the other hand I don’t usually hang around yards. Once you saw me you would have likely followed my stare out the windshield to see what I was looking at,then you would have sighted my reason for being in there.VRS 311 wearing her new red & white paint and 50th anniversary markings! An ex-CN GP40-2W, 311 was the dog of the fleet until her unveiling recently as the only unit to wear the unique 50th anniversary Vermont Rail System paint scheme. Tonight was her first run on the VRS Whitehall job. For my part, having found 311 in here at night, I was trying to remember what good deed I had done in my recent past to rate such noble treatment! It isn’t every week I get to shoot not one, but two “one of a kind” locomotives during the week at night! Earlier the NS DL&W Heritage unit and now the VRS 311. Soon my attention turned to a more fruitful purpose, listening to the D&H North End on the car scanner. CP 253 had just left northbound and 609 was pulling in to deliver the gas train cars 311 and sisters were waiting on. 253 is told they will meet two southbounds at Howards, around one and a half hours each way from here. Suddenly it dawns on me, there is a window of time coming for CLP 264 to lift the gas train cars and get out of the yard crossing over the D&H main to access VRS rails, and I do not want to get caught here when they leave! Because, if I am aware of the window, you can be sure the VRS crew is working to take advantage of it also. So I hightail it out of Whitehall, and once over in Vermont enroute to Rutland I hear the D&H dispatcher sending 609 north to meet the two southbounds, and I think here comes 311! This is going to happen! They are going to show up before dawn. After quickly checking two spots I arrive at the Baptist Church in Center Rutland as the run over from Whitehall only involves perhaps 25 miles of track. A quick walk around evaluation of this favorite location from the past reveals additions to the scene, two spotlights mounted on the church which are on, one pointing to where I want to shoot from, (how did they know?) and I figure the flash units will overcome them. Two autos parked around the building, and fresh snow! And subtractions, a large overhanging tree trackside has been cut down! Hooray! This opens up the view of the church much more! SO I never hear CLP 264 leave Whitehall as I am going around away from the car scanner setting up the lighting. I no sooner get the lighting setup and do some test shots than I can hear ‘em! The steady drumbeat of EMD prime movers off to the west! I’m impressed! They made very good time over here! A private plow operator with a small dump truck mounted plow with rotating yellow beacon slowly drives by, each sweep of the beacon setting off the entire lighting outfit. Thankfully the batteries are fully charged! I stare at the driver as he drives under the railroad and out of sight. Glancing around “the hood” no bedroom lights are on so everyone slept through the light show! Whew! Balancing atop the stepladder on an incline everything looks good, and I go to move a flash back some but stop in my tracks. Headlight glow is seen down the tracks, holy cow! They are here! I quickly retreat to the stepladder, happy with what I can get at this point knowing the 311 will not be leading everywhere on the VRS system. Engineer Mike Ricketts and conductor Domenic Bourgeois come up Bowmans Hill towards me riding in the 311! What a sight! With a silent press of the shutter release the lighting reflects back a grand Vermont scene at night. With the tree chopped down, the church is seen much better, and 311 wow! Complete with gold painted trucks! Captured in fresh snow on its first trip over to Whitehall and back after being decorated for the VRS 50th anniversary! I’ve never enjoyed a week like this, where I am given the chance to shoot TWO one of a kind locomotives in the same week during the night! Shot on January 17, 2014 at 05:28 in Center Rutland, VT. Please enjoy! Comments are welcomed. Special thanks to Mike and Domenic for being there!

 

All The Best In 2014;

Gary Knapp

DL&W at XO Tower?

New England regional Pan Am Railways, which operates the old Boston & Maine, Maine Central, Portland Terminal and Springfield Terminal trackages, entered into an agreement with Norfolk Southern in March 2009, with each railroad owning 50% of “Pan Am Southern” comprising trackage between Mechanicville, NY and Ayer, Mass. With the unveiling of the NS Heritage Fleet in 2012, this partnership between NS & Pan Am has resulted in a surprising number of colorful Heritage engines visiting on trains running to and from Ayer and also on NS originating coal trains to the power plant in Bow, NH! You can imagine the attention these Heritage units generate as they are tracked coming and going! Throughout their visits, it has been cast in stone, so to speak, that whatever leads/trails eastward will also lead/trail going back west due to operations at the terminal in Ayer where a wye is used to access the yard. On Monday this week, both the Nickel Plate and Delaware, Lackawanna & Western Heritage engines were on the property! The Nickel Plate leaving westbound in the lead overnight and the DL&W arriving at Ayer in trailing position on their respective trains. Feeling I could wait on the Nickel Plate unit I let him go as it is a two and a half hr. drive each way to a favorite location in Mechanicville...........XO Tower.

I wake up the next afternoon, (my morning.....) and check emails as is standard procedure. Here comes many emails from the GuilfordRailSightings group which covers Pan Am, the subject of them all was the power off of 206 at Ayer which included the DL&W unit! The notes take on many forms, some cryptic and puzzling in their meaning but I get the idea, the power which arrived overnight off of 206, which was sitting outside the yard all day, has departed westward.....................LIGHT ENGINE! (Light engine meaning with no cars in tow) Wide awake suddenly I’m re-reading some of the emails, making sure I didn’t miss something. This never happens, the engines running light back west? This means......Then I receive an email from night photographer William Gill which confirms it, the DL&W Heritage unit is leading westbound out of Ayer! Are you kidding me!? The plan is for the light engines to run to East Deerfield Yard where they will pick up some cars and continue on to Mechanicville. William guesses they should be going past XO Tower around 00:30. At 19:45 I’m downtown with the Civic gassed up, a Subway “Egg & Cheese” Sub on the seat next to me, leaving southbound!

Driving down in rain and fog, it all disappears upon arriving in Mechanicville around 22:30. A full moon is out, making it bright enough to walk around without really needing my headlamp at times. The set up goes smoothly having set up the lighting here several times and as soon as I am ready to do a test shot or two, here comes empty crude unit train CP 609 on the right hand main heading for Saratoga and a road crew to take it to Montreals St. Luc Yard! The crew on 609 “somehow” seems to know me lol! I get a couple toots and the engineer hollers something as he passes me, I can’t make it out amid the din of the passing pair of GEs’'. Great to see you guys! Surprisingly, the rushed photo comes out okay! Let’s hope this is a good omen I think to myself. lol! 23:30 comes and goes, then midnight...........I am waiting and listening...............for a westbound. The Mechanicville Police driving by notice one of my test flashes and shine a spotlight up towards me atop the stepladder from below XO Tower, then check the two main lines to make sure they have no obstacles and to the officers credit, depart without interviewing me, I’m grateful. I was gonna wave but then thought better of it and just stood atop the stepladder behind the tripod etc. A Police Interview would be an open invitation for the DL&W unit to suddenly appear! lol! The signal behind me protecting the shared main line as well as the yard throat has been red, red over yellow now for fifteen minutes promoting my conclusion the signal “must be” for 205 with the DL&W unit. Several minutes after midnight the gorgeous sound reaches my ears, that of an air horn across the Hudson River to my east! With a short and light train of empty auto racks, 205 takes less than ten minutes I would guess before activating the grade crossing signals below me! I fire off the lighting and at the angle the cab is at, the crew must at least see XO Tower briefly lit up in front of them before slowly negotiating the curve towards me. Seconds tick past then the pilot reaches my mark, I fire off the lighting, nothing happens! I don’t see the flash or the reflected light off the engine!! (Likely due to my using a 100mm telephoto, and viewing the proceedings from further away than the norm) It’s an unnerving second before the image appears on the camera lcd monitor! SUCCESS! I’m wearing a broad smile with 1074s cab passing alongside me as I wave to the crew. The engineer opens the window but we say nothing to each other in passing. I am speechless! What a beautiful paint scheme! And to think this night photo was made possible by a light engine move! As 205 came into town, a second westbound could be heard behind them, and an eastbound was arriving in Mechanicville also but...........there is nothing to hang around for at this point, and I have the lights all retrieved as the two trains pass through the location. Anything else moving on rails is anti-climactic after this! Shot on January 15, 2014 at 00:24 with the 5D and Zeiss ZF 100/2 lens set at f2. Special thanks to Kevin Burkholder and William Gill! Please enjoy! Comments are welcomed.

All the Best In 2014;

Gary Knapp

 

 

Thanks Frank!

Frank Jolin caught a few pics of me working on the Lacolle Sub, 643, empty oil train....and a 608 with 108 loaded oil cars...

Rob D

Canadian Pacific Holiday Train 2013

 

The southbound deadhead move of Canadian Pacifics’ Holiday Train ran overnight and I had planned to shoot it coming off of Rogers Island in Fort Edward, NY. Greg Klingler had pointed the location out to me earlier and in spite of the spots shortcomings, it offered a grand view of the train on the open deck bridge crossing the Hudson. The shortcomings? I would have had to stand on a narrow highway bridge with the light stands holding the flash units taped to the bridge railing. I had looked the location over during an earlier visit and deemed it doable. Then I arrived early this morning. I make a mistake turning around to check if a train is waiting on the siding at the station for the Holiday Train to pass by. I pick the fire station driveways to turn around in.................while the Fort Edward policeman drives by. This results in my being stopped for not using my turn signal early enough at a stop sign, (ok, I was lost) and while the officer interviews me he spots my scanners on the front seat. The conversation turns toward how it is illegal to monitor police frequencies in N.Y., and I agree, volunteering to automatically scan my frequencies monitored while the officer transmits on his radio............five feet away, promising my scanner will not lock on any frequency he is using. The officer transmits..............my scanner locks on a frequency. I stare at the display reading 160.635 the MM&A freq. The officer says to me “That’s Illegal!” I blame the fact he is transmitting so close for my scanner locking on a freq. and ask him to have his dispatcher call him. He agrees to try this. This time my scanner acts normally and after further conversation he provides direction back toward Rogers Island and we part ways. Arriving back at the spot Greg had recommended to me, the bridge coming off of Rogers Island, I don’t like the looks of it and veto the idea. I’m not a big fan of standing out on highway bridges late at night no matter the view provided, never mind narrow ones! Besides, the composition over at the bridge coming onto Rogers Island is stronger I tell myself, what with the pair of trees to frame with. It turns out to be the right decision, as I no sooner get set-up around the two trees when it starts snowing and blowing with temps in the low thirties! Besides! Some compassionate, thoughtful and kind person has surgically pruned tree branches here opening up the view enabling me to shoot from a much higher vantage point now! So..........it’s 03:15ish...........I’m standing here holding the golfing umbrella from LaGrange over the camera on tripod due to the snow, and car headlights break the spell as I wait. A car swings around the blind corner and under the bridge behind me, to park off to my right. The driver gets out and I recognize the voice saying “Hi Gary”. Greg Klingler walks up to greet me. We talk for a while over night photography and the Holiday Train, then it dawns on me Greg might be a good addition to the photo here. He agrees to try it and stands next to the tree on the right, first too close to the camera, too dominating in the composition, then he takes a couple steps toward the river and wow, what a difference it makes! Remembering what to do from when he posed on the platform up at Riverside for me several weeks back, Greg marks his spot and walks back to check the photo in the camera. Some twenty minutes later I hear the car scanner picking up the crew of 9824, the Holiday Train locomotive, talking to the North End Dispatcher...........clearly, like they are nearby. I send Greg to his position on the river bank and we wait as I remind him in years past here, the only warning one gets is when they blow for the crossing above us at the station. Which provides maybe thirty seconds warning before the head end is on the bridge when traveling at passenger train speed! Hence my hovering around the camera. After several long minutes, we finally hear 9824s air horn, but it’s not the intense sound associated with high speed running, it sounds like the train is creeping along! Then nothing happens. The headlight glow I could see above the bridge disappears! A minute, then two passes by and we joke uneasily that the crew is doing this just to add to the drama for us! lol! Now the headlights are back on, and we can hear the 9824 starting to pull. Entering onto the bridge at around twenty mph, Greg waves and I watch as the pilot plow progresses slowly across to where a silent press of the shutter release sets off the lighting, capturing the scene! Viewing the resulting photos afterwards, it is apparent how much of an improvement Greg provides! Shot on November 26, 2013 at 04:32 in Fort Edward, NY. Very special thanks to Greg Klingler for his contribution to the photo! Please enjoy! Comments are welcomed.

All The best In 2013;

Gary Knapp

I Do Work Ya Know!

I'm glad you enjoyed Rob. I was with a friend from Vermont that wanted to take some CP shots and be introduced to the ``switch lady``... We were at Farnham for the hi-rail vehicles(bidders) parade that were touring the MM&A, when I heard Lacolle RTC about the meet at St-Mathieu. Perfect timing as we were only 30 mins from Delson.
Taken on November 7, 2013. 643 approaching Delson heading to Montreal with Rob Dennis at the throttle.

Francois Jolin 

CP SD60's At Port Henry

 

This is one of those rare (for me) later that same night photos. Returning to Hinesburg from north of the border in Foster, Quebec basking in being content with my two images of the Oxford Express, the car scanner comes to life as a detector on CP over across Lake Champlain from my position on the Interstate signaled the passing of a freight, and in the garbled crew acknowledgment of the detectors broadcast message I was sure I heard............6.....4.....2. That 642 was advertised earlier to be running into Montreal from out west with a trio of SD 40-2s! I check the clock on the dash..........01:00ish, and continue heading for home. There I found messages from several friends attesting to the fact that 642 had a rebuilt ex-SOO LINE SD 60 leading tonight! Knowing 642 to be roughly across the lake from my position at the time, I brewed some tea to refill the thermos and headed out for a favorite spot on Rogers Island in Fort Edward. And never heard another thing on the North End for over an hour until I was getting near Whitehall, where unbeknownst to me a great gift was waiting. The scanner had picked up a crew talking about restarting a trailing engine, and I assumed this to be 642s crew dealing with an elderly SD 40-2. I am driving past Whitehall Yard when a crewmember on 253 rings up the dispatcher, identifying his leader as 6225! He relates to the dispatcher how they have set off the two ACs, have one of the trailing units on line and are ready to head north. Now I remember, this trio of SD 60s came down on 252 yesterday in daylight. Two trailing units had shut down and they needed to add the pair of ACs to get over Richmondville Hill. Last I had read on the railfan grapevine showed the ACs leading back north leading 253 out of Binghamton..........but here they were, setting them off in Whitehall! An inquiry of the night dispatcher by 253s crew about what is coming toward them further north reveals a 930 and 252, no mention was made of that 642! Time to turn the Civic around! lol! I leave from opposite Whitehall Yard just as 253 is getting underway, and I can picture how great those three repainted SD 60s will look from atop the display engine at Port Henry, some forty or more miles away. If, I can get there far enough ahead of these guys to set up. I had done this in the past in this situation, years ago, but the track speed has been improved a great deal in the ensuing years, so this would be interesting. First of all, no night photo is worth risking a speeding ticket over. So I keep to five mph over the limit driving north, and obviously, I was successful! I know where everything as far as the lighting goes here at Port Henry by now, and I test the lights before I climb up top of the RS-18 cab on display here. Being encouraged to “get it right” by the approaching SD 60s, which could be clearly heard coming up Lake Champlain to my south. Normally on quiet nights like tonight, I can hear northbounds south of town blowing for a couple grade crossings, allowing me to make a judgment on how far away they are, I am not granted that luxury tonight however, and I have finished manually focusing the 28mm lens and leveling the 5D when I am alarmed to hear the low roar engines produce crossing a short deck bridge maybe a half mile away......in town. I have time for a couple more test shots then 253 is blowing for the crossing just out of sight, and up around the curve the station is situated in the middle of comes quite a sight! Three newly repainted and rebuilt SD 60s! Out of storage where the entire class of engines had been until recently. Responding to the open camera shutter, the flash units do their thing, leaving me to give the crew a wave as they pass by below. Success! What a night! Watching my step, it’s a long way down from up here, I preserve the image from being accidentally erased and slowly collapse the tripod before climbing down via the short hood with its handrails. It’s not every night trackside I shoot three “keepers”! lol! Shot on October 26, 2013 at 04:04 in Port Henry, NY. Please enjoy! Comments are welcomed.

All The Best In 2013;

Gary Knapp

Riverside Station on the Saratoga & North Creek

We return to Riverside Station alongside the Hudson River tonight on the Saratoga & North Creek for another night photo of BL2 #52. I’ll enjoy all the moments universe wants to send my way like this one! In addition to the ever attractive BL2, my friend Greg Klinger has agreed beforehand to pose for me with the BL2 passing by! Mother Nature provides a steady light rain with temps in the low fifties. What could possibly go wrong? Ha,ha,ha! I arrive at the pre-arranged 8 pm, (no small feat in itself) and meet up with Greg, and we go about placing the lights for the scheduled 9:05 pm appearance of train 185. Tonight, keeping in mind how elevation is everything with train photos, no matter day or night, I have planned to go for a higher viewpoint, up atop the caboose. With Gregs help I have camera, tripod and large umbrella in place some twenty minutes before train time. Life is great! Test shots look fine, I ask Greg to move a flash unit for me, otherwise we are ready. We let nine pm arrive before either of us mentions to the other that “hey, we have not heard that ‘boat horn’ yet, remember last Sat. night we heard it some fifteen minutes before we saw headlight glow?” 9:05 passes, the time we saw 185 a week ago, with no sign of a train. No problem we confidently conclude, they are a little late tonight that’s all, maybe the fallen leaves are giving the BL2 problems. 9:30 then 9:45 pass with no boat horn sounds, now we are concerned as this is a scheduled passenger train. All sorts of doubts are manufactured in our heads as to what happened? Ten pm and we hear that most welcome low toned sound! lol! Minutes pass by as we listen to engine exhuast, followed by quiet breaks, then more engine exhaust sounds then finally headlight glow can be detected, then the headlights of 52 come into view below the station, yes! Success is at hand! I direct Greg into position below me............then we both notice..........the train has ah..........stopped! Maybe two thousand feet away, there #185 sits, then the ditch lights go off, never a good sign. We agree that dose’nt imply good things. It becomes a stare down, lol! Nobody moving. Neither Greg or I have our scanners handy to monitor any conversations between crew and dispatcher, so we wait. After several long minutes, happily the ditch lights come back on! Forward! I’m thinking. And the BL2 led 185 struggles up to the station and stops, this time only some fifty feet away from my planned position for the photo! Oh, so close! But no cigar. However, now the conductor appears, walking up the platform past Greg, says a few words with him and continues past the caboose greeting me on the roof underneath the brightly colored golfing umbrella from La Grange, to the grade crossing behind me where he manually shuts off the crossing signals and waves waiting traffic by. Greg hollers up to me.............”wet leaves! They are having problems with wheel slip!” Once the road traffic is cleared the conductor resets the crossing signals and walks back down to us to ask Greg...............”the question”. “WHERE DO YOU WANT IT?” Greg looks up at me, and I holler instructions to the conductor who relays them to the engineer. I reflect how Greg and I just went from “Rags to Riches”, ha,ha,ha! As the crew positions the BL2 for us. I fire off a couple shots, then ask for the ditch lights to be turned back on please, (as I plan for them to be on when setting up the lighting) then fire off several more shots. The engineer emerges from the front door of 52 and I climb down to greet an old friend from long ago, Tom Carver! Amid handshakes, pleasantries and of course the obligatory “chimping”, (oohing and ahhhing at the images on the camera lcd monitor) we are told the train is empty of passengers, and they are out of sand for traction on the wet rail and fallen leaves. They have their doubts about climbing the grade out of Riverside and mention how they will back down below the station to get as much of a run at it as they can . And with that disclosure the crew says goodbye and heads back to their duties on board, leaving Greg and I basking in being spoiled! In my case at least........AGAIN! As the BL2 led passenger train backs away from us, I do the only logical thing to do in this case, and climb back up atop the caboose, as you would I’m sure! This time for a photo runby! A totally different experience versus shooting the train stopped! Once they roll past us and out of sight into the darkness, I climb down and collect the equipment with Gregs help. Before long though..............here they come. Back out of the night into view and over the grade crossing comes train 185, unable to climb the grade out of town! The crew ends up tying the train down overnight out of sight, and a crew van picks them up for the ride back to North Creek, while Greg and I bask in our accomplishments. Having Greg in the photo waving makes a huge improvement in my opinion. And hey? Where else in this world of ours, can one see a BL2 built in 1949 working with a B39-8 built in the mid-eighties in 2013? Only here, on the Saratoga & North Creek! Every night is an adventure! Shot on October 19, 2013 at 22:24 in Riverside, NY. Special thanks to Greg Klinger and the S&NC crew on train 185! Please enjoy! Comments are welcomed.

 

All The Best In 2013;

Gary Knapp

NS OCS On The D&H

Here are some pics from the October 3rd trip of the NS OCS up CP's A&S. I initially didn't plan of doing anything with the train but with up to the minute texts from "Brian" (Thanks You Again!!!) as I was pulling out of the driveway and really nice weather I said "Ah What The Heck". After a quick stop at Stewarts at 20 and 30 for coffee I followed the ROW from 503 to Gage Road. When I arrived there were a few fellow fans already there who were very well behaved. After about an hours wait the NS OCS came north on its way to Mechanicville. I then left and headed to Colonie. Once I again I was texted around 1:30 that that OCS's power was running around its train so i decided to again head back to Gage Road and do a from the field shot. Around 5:30 the OCS showed up again deadheading south for home. I didn't bother following the train as weather pretty much went to potts again after the train passed. Nice to see some class again on a railroad with not much class left.

Dean J. Splittgerber, Duanesburg, NY

Leviathan Cometh

The Leviathan made a visit to the Saratoga & North Creek, Brad Peterson got this nice shot!
 

 Bill Kozel got his shot at North Creek!

"This caboose was bought from LV by GE who outfitted it with a complete kitchen for the crew that would guard the big generators that were shipped on the big depressed flats/(Schnables). Ended up on UHR and now S&NC"- Bill Kozel

 

 Teddy Roosevelt came to visit!

Nice shot by Brad Peterson

 

"By gosh, they'll let anybody run the thing won't they!"

Bill Kozel

ALS Fall Meet 2013

Tom McEntee sent a few photos from the Fall Meet at Adirondack Live Steamers in Wilton on September 14th!